Re: Exploding pumpkins - New theory
- To:
- Subject: Re: Exploding pumpkins - New theory
- From: J* D*
- Date: Tue, 20 Apr 1999 00:05:12 -0400
I think A.G.s blow up for the same reason that race car engines do; they are
being required to perform at an extreme level. That's all.
Jim DuBois
-----Original Message-----
From: Pumkinguy@aol.com <Pumkinguy@aol.com>
To: pumpkins@mallorn.com <pumpkins@mallorn.com>
Date: Tuesday, April 20, 1999 12:50 AM
Subject: Re: Exploding pumpkins - New theory
>In a message dated 4/18/99 10:01:52 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
>SteveS012@aol.com writes:
>
><< I am thinking that maybe this occurs not just because of an over supply
of
> water or nutrients at once, but maybe rather an imbalance of
>nutrients:water.
> When the cells cannot replicate fast enough to hold the water, there is
> splitting. Does this sound right?
> If there was a way to keep the ratio correct, by suppying the right ratio
of
> nutriets, temperature, etc. when there is heavy rain, (instead of
>WITHHOLDING
> nutrients), do you think this might help?
> >>
>Steve,
> Good ideas. We always must keep thinking and trying things. One of the
>toughest parts of trying to do research on the Atlantic Giant is that there
>is no control. When experimenting with a plant, you normally take an
>untreated ( control group), treat the other half of the specimens with less
>water, more water, less water with less nutrients, less water with more
>nutrients, more water with less nutrients, more water with more nutrients,
>more and less water with different nutrients etc., etc. Now you compare the
>propensity to split in the different groups. Here comes the problem.....
>Lets say you have 10 plants in the control group to compare to. The
Atlantic
>Giant is so unpredicable that the 10 control plants might exhibit all
>different degrees of splitting and non splitting. All treated the same and
>all from the same pumpkin. It will make you pull out your hair. If we can
get
>a plant straightened out genetically, we could have good control
>plants....then when you make a change, you could compare it to a good,
>consistant control group. So many of us conduct "fly by the seat of your
>pants" research while having fun growing pumpkins. I have seen very slow
>growing pumpkins split wide open....there's a disturbing piece of research.
>Over the last 15 years, the science of giant pumpkin growing has taken many
>turns. I remember when the gospel was....set a fruit at least 15 feet out
so
>you have a big enough root system and number of leaves to support a big
>pumpkin.....makes sense....then Don Black came along and set a fruit 4 feet
>out on the plant on a side vine and set the world record. You must prune
your
>plant to get a big pumpkin, Don Black again....unpruned. I still like
>pruning, I don't care. The pumpkin must be set on the main vine........Don
>Black disproved that one too. I still like the main vine. A 5 segment
flower
>is best.......many big 4 and 6 segment flowers. Many times we must get up,
>dust ourselves off and keep growing. Many of the gospels today, may be
>disproven tomorrow....
> pumkinguy
>
>---------------------------------------------------------------------
>To sign-off this list, send email to majordomo@mallorn.com with the
>message text UNSUBSCRIBE PUMPKINS
>
---------------------------------------------------------------------
To sign-off this list, send email to majordomo@mallorn.com with the
message text UNSUBSCRIBE PUMPKINS
